Reception Reports: June 7-14, 2010 Hot Times With Rochester, Syracuse, Utica & Erie!

Greetings TV Garth readers! This latest recap will cover my reception during early to mid-June. As the hot weather continued, there were many days with good openings to Rochester, Syracuse and Utica, NY signals. There was also one day that stood out with some surprisingly strong Erie, PA tropo. Grab a snack, and get ready to surf through the reception I was picking up during the week of June 7-14, 2010!

June 7, 2010

I was flipping through the various Rochester, NY morning shows, including WHEC's (on RF10) which features the awesome Rebecca Leclair and Pat McGonigle. Just how bad ass is Rebecca? Check out these direct quotes from her Facebook fan page this past year:

- On Yardwork: "Don't mind doing limited yard work when it's really hot...as long as I can jump right into the pool afterwards! Don't need the pool heater this week, that's fo sure!" (July 6 at 6:49am)

- On St. Patrick's Day: "hey! The city has painted the green line down East Avenue and Main Street...a sure sign of spring and the upcoming St. Patrick's Day parade...Remember, no drinking allowed on the sidewalks....I guess I'll just have to find something else to do on Saturday...." (March 10 at 6:45am)



If I haven't mentioned it already, WROC's meterologist Brian Neudorff is a pretty awesome guy and is very friendly with his fans. Check out his Twitter profile as well as his Weather site, WX-MAN.com (Photo below of Rochester, NY's WROC on RF45.)



I also caught a neat ad for Utica's Diamond Dawgs baseball team on WKTV (RF29).



Syracuse, NY also showed up with WSYR (RF17) and The Morning News with Dan Cummings and Christie Casciano. (I still think Dan needs to star in a mystery/drama series called Cummings and Goings where he investigates odd crimes! It could be the new Murder She Wrote! See, even Christie's jaw dropped after hearing my idea!)



WSYR hired meteorlogist Chris Brandolino to do weather duties on The Morning News as well as co-host the mid-morning show Bridge Street.



I always feel like a cheap prostitute when Carl shakes his money at me like that. Is this before or after we try out his furniture? (Seen via Utica, NY's WKTV on RF29.)



Man on the left declares "It's HUUUUUUUUUGGEE!"



Man on the right reacts accordingly. (Seen via Syracuse, NY's WSYR on RF17.)



WHEC's Christine VanTimmeren arrives in time to illustrate that my reception was berry berry good this morning! (Seen on RF10.)



June 8, 2010 (Late night)

This is as good a place as any to declare how much I LOVE Heidi Montag's song Body Language. Go buy it on iTunes and enjoy a poptastic guilty pleasure, while helping fund her divorce! (Seen via Rochester, NY's WHAM on RF13.)



June 9, 2010

Utica Monday Nite is an annual Summer tradition for Central New Yorkers! (Seen via Utica, NY's WKTV on RF29.)



Don Shipman and Megan Koskovich share some Divatastic moments on Newschannel 2 At Sunrise. (Seen via Utica's WKTV on RF29.)



Just once I'd like to see someone say "Meghan, can you Backus up on that?" Or else see Meghan get down to a hot club jam called "Backus That Thang Up!" (Seen via Rochester, NY's WROC on RF45.)



Jason Frazer is always on hand to report about the latest stories (often times live on location) for WROC's News 8 Now at Sunrise.



In the wee hours of June 9th, Erie, PA signals started to get VERY strong. Here's an ad from WQLN (RF50) about their vehicle donation program, as I got revved up for a tropo-tastic night!



Erie's WICU (RF12) held steady for the 4am repeat of their evening newscast, featuring reporter Emily Matson below.



Also on WICU is Amanda Post, who provides a solid foundation for Erie's news!



This is the full WICU news set pictured below with Rob Wilson, Amanda Post, Kevin MacDowell, and Mike Ruzzi.



The first sign that the Erie tropo was getting powerful appears below, when I caught WSEE on RF16. (This is a rarity with Rochester, NY's WXXI being such a regular catch on the same channel.) Usually I watch WSEE via their SD subchannel on WICU.



This is probably what I looked like when I saw WSEE arrive on RF16:



Another sign that Erie was super strong was seeing their FOX station WFXP blast over a semi-local analog station (Oshawa's CHEX-TV2) on RF22.



I find it funny that I always get to see promos for the WFXP morning news, but the station always fades before I can see it! (WFXP uses the same news staff as WJET, but I can't even see WJET as it's on RF24 which is occupied by Toronto's CBLFT.)





Just before the late night became early morning, I got this awesome shot of WFXP's logo!



I also captured this neat local ad for the 22nd Annual Thurston Classic via Erie's WXFP (RF22). Once you've had a taste of their event, you'll be Thurston for more!



June 10, 2010

Morning had arrived and it was time for the early news shows at 5am. WICU (RF12) featured a story that covered a patriotic looking meeting at the Erie International Airport.



WICU's Paul Wagner has been a long time reporter for the station. Wagner has covered stories all the way back to what some Erie-ites refer to as the "glory days" of WICU.



Presque Isle is a big Summer attraction in the Erie area, including live musical events and the usual Summer-y activities. (In other news, Shania Twain was allegedly removed from the list of performers after releasing her controversial single That Don't ImPresque Me Much.)



Another unique ad popped up via Erie's WXFP on RF22. This time it's for the Annual Bug Run To Fight Juvenile Diabetes presented by Star Touring & Riding Erie Chapter 187.



Also on WFXP were promos for the evening newscast (which, like their morning newscasts, I've never actually seen!)





By 6am I was watching WSEE's Mornings Live With Stephanie & Ray. I flipped back and forth between the feed on RF12-3 (WICU's subchannel) and the main WSEE feed on RF16. I really enjoy the show, in particular because of Ray Petelin's awesome sense of humour and the fun atmosphere it creates.




See, what'd I tell ya? Fun atmosphere, laughter and lively personalities - that's what I like to see in a morning show! (Unfortunately Stephanie Schelkun recently left the show to move to a station in West Virginia. So far Ray is holding his own with a barrage of guest co-hosts, including Scott Bremner and Lisa Weismann.)



June 14, 2010 (late night)

I caught a rerun of Married...With Children on Utica, NY's WKTVDT2 (RF29-2) which is a "CW Plus" affiliate. What makes this significant is that the ep guest starred Matt Borlenghi, who was one of the first guys I saw on TV that made me realize I was "different" from the average fellow.



Samantha Who? indeed....



Utica, NY's WUTR also popped up this evening via RF30. WUTR is much lower powered than WKTV, and also has a lower tower height. So it's always a surprise to pick this one up.



WUTR's subchannel is MyTV affiliate WPNY-LP, featured on 20-2 (RF30-2). WPNY is notorious for running endless loops of Sun car dealership infomercials! It used to only feature the guy on the right (check out his Syracuse Chiefs jersey) but they added a slick female co-host who would be right at home on a morning news show!



Syracuse, NY's WSYR (RF17) also turned up with this local ad for the Fehlman Bros!



Gotta love their doppler radar on subchannel WSYR-2!



I noticed something unusual when I turned on Utica, NY's WKTV (RF29) and saw their rerun of Seinfeld - it's now being shown in HD! I don't know what this means for the rest of WKTV's syndicated fare, but it was a surprise to see this show up in full HD.



Syracuse and Utica signals were very strong this night (see pic of WSYR on RF17 below). I also believe I came close to picking up Binghamton, NY stations. I noticed some blinking on RF34 coming in roughly the same direction as Rochester, NY. (I checked for my usual suspect on that channel, but RF34 was not Cleveland's WQHS.) Given that RF34 "blinked" the strongest in Rochester's direction, I would speculate it was from Binghamton. Unfortunately it didn't get strong enough to decode.



More proof of strong Syracuse appears below, as full power Toronto analog station CICA (TVO) gets covered in digital snow on channel 19! (Most likely Syracuse's WSYT trying to take over!)



Later this night, Glee's Chris Colfer showed up on the 3am repeat of Jimmy Fallon on Rochester's WHEC (RF10). (A little while after this, NBC switched their 3am talk show repeats back to Jay Leno.)



I love WHEC's subchannel on 10-2 which is a localized version of the old NBC Weather Plus format. Chief Meteorologist Kevin Williams is pictured with a nighttime view of Rochester behind him.



Another NBC affiliate, another Chief Meteorologist! This time it's Rob Wilson via Erie, PA's WICU (RF12) during the 4am repeat of their newscast.



That wraps up my adventures with TV reception from the first half of June! Also check out my full set of Flickr photos here:

Garth's TV DXing June 7-14, 2010

Stay tuned to TV Garth for more Reception Reports and television related mayhem!